How to Write 䕭 (qián) — Meaning “nettle; wild herb”

Imagine touching a nettle plant and saying 'qian!' because it stings—the sound of surprise matches the pinyin. Then picture the grass radical 艹 on top and think of the nettle's leaves. This connects the meaning (nettle) to the pronunciation (qián) and the plant radical.

The character has 20 strokes, so write the top radical 艹 first with three strokes: horizontal, vertical, vertical. The bottom part is complex—pay attention to the horizontal strokes; they should be evenly spaced and not too long. A common mistake is making the bottom part too wide, which throws off the balance.

While all three have the grass radical 艹, 䕭 specifically means nettle and is pronounced qián, whereas 薶 (mái) refers to a different herb or can mean 'to bury' in some contexts. 藒 (qì) is a rare character for a type of medicinal herb, so the main differences are pronunciation and plant type.

䕭 is very rare in modern Chinese and mostly appears in classical texts or botanical lists for nettle varieties. The common modern word for nettle is 荨麻 (qián má), so 䕭 is almost never used in daily conversation. It may appear in traditional medicine references to wild herbs.

Common words containing 䕭 include: 䕭草 (qián cǎo) — nettle herb; 䕭花 (qián huā) — nettle flowers; 䕭叶 (qián yè) — nettle leaves.